A week removed from their fourth quarter meltdown in Sonora, the Oakdale High School varsity football team bounced back. The Mustangs hosted Galena of Reno and behind an aggressive rushing attack, stingy defense and a strategic coaching plan, Oakdale came away with a convincing 42-7 home win.
Oakdale’s dominant evening began just a dozen seconds into the game. On the first play from scrimmage, junior running back Wes Burford carried the ball 80 yards for a touchdown to give Oakdale a 7-0 advantage. Later in the first quarter, Galena took advantage of an Oakdale turnover and tied the game with a 34-yard touchdown reception by Colby Crossman from quarterback Colson Kermode. The Galena quarterback would exit the game later in the second quarter and did not return in the second half. That first quarter strike would be the only time the Grizzlies scored.
Burford powered his way to three more touchdowns on the night. With 2:50 left in the first quarter Burford scored on a 32-yard rushing touchdown to give Oakdale a 14-7 lead. The only score of the second quarter came on a Burford 19-yard rush with 5:02 remaining in the half.
Burford’s final trip to the end zone came with 8:25 left in the third quarter on a six-yard rush. Burford finished the night with 25 carries for 251 yards.
In the fourth quarter Oakdale found the end zone two more times. Chase Lopez scored on a 32-yard run and Richard Flores scored on a 35-yard rushing score.
“For those who do not know us and came to the game tonight would probably find our brand or style of football boring; but that’s what we do,” said Mustangs coach Garrett Martin.
The tradition of playing a variety of teams in preseason non-conference games continues to be something that many look forward to each year.
“We enjoy and look forward to playing a long road trip, like Aptos, or have a visiting team come in here and play like Galena did tonight,” Martin explained. “It has been an important thing for 30 or 40 years. We enjoy playing these types of games.”
As far as the team’s effort, Martin said they are far from where he would like to be.
“It was a step in the right direction but when you are not improving you are not getting better and I think that’s what happened tonight. We had a lot of young mistakes, penalties and turnovers tonight. We have to correct that and fast if we are going to achieve what we want to this season.”
Defensively for Oakdale, Flores had an interception, Jacob Kindrick recovered a fumble on special teams and Eli Fisher and Coby Soares each had a sack.
This Friday night, Oakdale travels to Escalon. Last season Escalon came into Oakdale and defeated the Mustangs 41-21 in the battle for the 120 Cup, established by the mayors of both communities. The winner of the game gets to keep it until the following season; it has been in Escalon since last September.
Meanwhile, Oakdale’s junior varsity got a shutout victory Friday night, winning 48-0 over Redwood Christian.
